


I had no idea of the state We were in

by Elie



Series: Thallen Week 2015 [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Eddie may have gotten some weird power after the explosion, F/M, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Soulmate AU, Thallenweek2015, a little bit angst, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 05:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4006816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elie/pseuds/Elie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started with something he could barely see. A blurry red line far away. A red thread coming out along the arm in a random person´s jacket and stretching out so far Eddie couldn´t see the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I had no idea of the state We were in

**Author's Note:**

> So - I decided today that I wanted to write an entry for this years Thallen week. So I´m sorry if this is rushed and have bad grammar, I just got really excited when writing ehe

Eddie doesn´t think much about that horrible night when the particle accelerator exploded, not anymore than everyone else at least. 

It hadn´t been anything weird for him really, besides that his house had shook and the lightning somehow had struck his TV and he had gotten a little electrocuted. Just a little. Okay, he might have woken up laying on the floor half an hour later but he was totally okay. He even went to the doctor the very next day, and the doctor couldn´t find a single flaw in his health. 

But then the red strings happened. They showed up a week after the whole thing. It started with something he could barely see. A blurry red line far away. A red thread coming out along the arm in a random person´s jacket and stretching out so far that Eddie couldn´t see the end. 

But as the days goes, more strings shows up in people´s wrists. After awhile every single person Eddie meets, now has a red string shooting out of their wrist. Sometimes the red thread is really really thin, but sometimes its thick, clear and almost like a freaking rope. 

Eddie tries to talk to about 5 different people about it, until he realises that he might be the only one who´s seeing these strings. Or everyone else is just refusing to see them. He gets odd looks anyway, and people tend to ask him questions that makes him think they now view him as crazy. 

So he shuts up about it, and goes back to work like normal. The whole explosion has made everyone kinda on edge, so his weird behaviour probably gets excused. 

He get´s promoted to be Joe West´s partner not too long after. It´s kinda weird at first. Joe´s former partner had been killed on the very night the particle accelerator exploded. They all knew him. He was a colleague, a friend. Joe never speaks about it. But they all knew the man had to be replaced at some point anyway, they couldn´t have a step-in forever.

Joe.. doesn´t have a string out of his wrist. The only possibility that he has one is that it´s stretched too thin for Eddie to see with a normal human eye. He doubts Joe will like it if he starts looking at the mans wrists with a magnifying glass. But still, he´s never seen anyone without a string before now. And Eddie knows the man, and it´s nothing too weird about him that can explain it. 

Joe mainly talks about his daughter Iris and his adopted son Barry. Eddie have seen Iris around, she´s got a bright smile and has a sometimes too curious mind. She loves hearing about the cases the police works on. Barry was a forensic scientist, who also worked at the station, and him and Eddie used to wave or nod at each other when they met in the hall. 

Barry was hurt when the accelerator exploded. He was hit by lightning cause by the explosion, they say. He still hasn´t recovered, and if the gossip has any truth to it he keeps coding when they finally think his heart rhythm is stable.

Being Joe´s partner, he gets to know Joe and his family even more. Talking with Joe gives him an insight on just how bad Barry´s condition is. 

Or on the Barry-thing, as the others at the station call it when they gossip about it.

The Barry-thing, is just really the story of what happened with Barry. Eddie figures its a miracle that Joe and Iris manage to keep smiling as the months drag on and he never hears anything about Barry getting better. Through the window by his desk Eddie sees father and daughter leave together sometimes, both with grim faces. The first month they drive towards the hospital. But then, the direction changes. The only thing Eddie knows is in that new direction is Harrison Well´s lab, and the exploded particle accelerator.

He doesn´t quite know what to make out of that, and he never mentions Barry to Joe because he quickly understands where Iris gets her super sad puppy eyes from.

In the free time he has, he instead starts to research his red thread problem. Turns out, theres this whole theory about red invisible threads connection soul mates. There´s many different versions of this theory, but every single one seem to be carrying the theme of connecting people that are meant for each other. The red threads are the connection. At every end, theres a person. So hypothetically, if you follow the red thread you will find your soulmate on the very end.

It´s actually an amazing concept, he figures.

He spends many nights awake reading about it. He even prints out papers to take with him to work, so he can read them in his breaks or when the days are slow and he has nothing to do. He doesn´t dare search it up on his work computer, as the man who keeps an eye on the internet activity going on at the station is a friend of his. No one to embarrass himself more. 

-

But then weird things starts to happen. Suddenly he´s so busy with work he barely has time to read anything that´s not work related. The amount of crimes happening in Central City skyrockets fast, and no one understands anything. The cases they can´t figure out grows into a massive pile. The list of things needed to be investigated is suddenly never ending. 

He can see that it pains Joe to not be able to visit Barry as much as before. It makes Eddie´s respect for Joe grow. Joe shows again that he is amazing at his work, and that he´s actually able to put aside personal stuff when the city needs him to.

Seeing Joe struggling makes him even more curious about who this Barry kid really is. He knows the whole tragic backstory, but he also sees how everyone in the whole police station seems to have a soft spot for the boy. Hell, even Eddie can´t help but feel sad about what Barry is going through even when months have passed. 

Even Captain Singh looks worried whenever Barry is brought up, and that´s kinda a miracle, so the kid must have some magical power that gets people to adore him. Eddie can remember countless of times Barry have been outright and hopelessly clumsy.

The amount of crimes growing isn´t the only weird thing that happens. At one point, Iris starts smiling at him in a new way and Joe starts glaring at him when he thinks Eddie doesn´t see. It might have something to do with how Iris holds his hand for a bit longer then necessary when Eddie hands her reports and other (usually classified) police stuff that she has managed to fight her way to.

And it´s when Iris asks him if he would be interested in going out for dinner, that he realises he doesn´t have a red string himself. There´s literally no string at all coming out of Eddie´s wrist, or any other body part for the matter. It´s painfully obvious when he looks at how Iris´ string is going in a complete different direction than at him.

But then he agrees to the date anyway. 

He´s not going to let some weird crazy theory about strings keep him from going on a date with a beautiful girl. 

Iris is amazing, and she´s so smart. Eddie is surprised she isn´t in the police academy instead of working as a journalist. But she seems happy enough to be doing reports and playing investigator for the paper, so Eddie doesn´t feel like he´s right to question it. 

Plus Eddie knows Joe, and how protective he is for his daughter. Eddie also knows how dangerous it can be to work as an police officer. The former owner of Eddie´s job is a sad reminder of that. 

It doesn´t take long before Eddie is sure also Iris is totally smitten by Barry Allen. He already knew the two were closer than even normal siblings would be, as he often saw them together before the.. thing happened. The crinkles by Iris´ eyes when she smiles comes out when she tells a story about how Barry often tried to run away as a kid, but would always come home when he got hungry. She explains that Barry would pout until Joe handed him a slice of pizza to eat out on the stairs before the boy would slowly come in to get more.

The happiness dies quickly though, when she tells Eddie that it doesn´t seem like Barry is getting any better. Ever. She just wants her brother to at least be stable, and not just hanging over the edge of death. Eddie feels bad for her, and wishes there was something he could to do save Barry. 

Iris and his´ relationship grows slowly. It´s Iris that kisses him first, a week after their first date. He doesn´t back away when her lips meet his. 

Eddie throws away his papers on the red strings when he gets home that night. Then he pretends he doesn´t see how thick, bright and obviously intertwined the strings are on an elderly couple he and Iris walks past on one of their later dates. 

He also pretends to ignore how Iris´ thread is stretched, thin and not at all connected to Eddie. 

-

One day, Eddie wakes up and when he looks in the mirror there´s a red string springing out of his wrist. It´s a little thin, but it´s clearly there. He spends so much time staring at it and trying (and failing) to grasp it that he´s almost late for work. His tie is only half done when he runs up the stairs to their floor at the station. Captain Singh sighs, and rolls his eyes before walking towards his office.

He can´t wait to meet Iris. Maybe it was just a mistake by the universe. Maybe it took some time for him to grow one. Maybe it is actually possible to change the destiny of the red strings. 

But maybe Iris´ string still leads away from him.. It´s something he´d rather not think about.

Not thinking about it turns out to be impossible. He can´t concentrate. He´s lost count of the times Joe has told him “for the love of god, please stop tapping your fingers!” He´s almost getting ready to just go home when something stops him.

Suddenly, theres a tingling, almost like an itch, on his wrist. Just where the red string is coming out of his wrist. Eddie stares. The red string seems to just grow clearer and thicker. Almost like -

The door opens. Iris comes in first, and Eddie´s hope grows until he sees that her string is still thin and not at all pointing towards him. It feels crushing. 

But then,

“BARRY!” Joe yells. Every head in the office snaps up to look at the door. It´s true. None other than Barry Allen walks through the door. Joe has his foster son engulfed in a hug before anyone else have even gotten out of their chairs. Eddie can see that Iris is one big happy smile. 

By now everyone is abondoning their desks to see if it´s true. Most are probably not believing their own eyes. Eddie´s sure most of them, including himself, thought they would never see the scientist again.

But no one is probably as shocked as Eddie. 

He stares at Barry´s wrist. There´s a firm, thick red string coming out of it. It goes between all the people that´s gathering around the until today comatose boy. 

The string goes between all the people, and even past Iris.

And when it has gotten past Iris, it´s pointed straight towards Eddie. Towards Eddie, and then on Eddie. 

There Eddie can finally see that Barry Allen´s red thread is connected with Eddie´s very own, glowing red, soul mate string.

**Author's Note:**

> I totally stole the title from the Adele song "Don´t You Remember"
> 
> I don´t know if I´ll be writing for the rest of the week, but I´m making a series for it anyway ehe.


End file.
